Rag & Bone / Fall 2011 RTW

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There was one worrying moment at Friday’s Rag & Bone show when, flipping open the run of show in the half-light, it felt like you’d been confronted with the menu at Balthazar, and had no idea what you were looking at unless you could be provided with either (a) a flashlight, and/or (b) a magnifying glass. But then the lights came up and everything was clear—as clear and as bright as what designers David Neville and Marcus Wainwright went on to show. The vision of the great outdoors they conjured up for fall isn’t exactly 127 Hours, which is just as well, really; it would bring a whole new meaning to the phrase “I’d give my right arm for one of their fantastic varsity jackets.”

But even in their inspirational yearnings for the chilly outer limits of Norway, Scotland, and the Arctic Circle, they returned to the kind of world they know like the back of their hand: the mean streets of New York, and their girl who navigates a landscape of concrete, sidewalks, and traffic signals. What could have gone deeply rural—Aran fringing, vibrant plaids, woolly shearlings—instead got the urgent, urban treatment, with layers of duffel coats and biker jackets graphically paneled and patched in wool and leather, over leaf-print blouses, kilts, striped pants that looked like they’d been cut down from an English schoolboy’s blazer, banded leg warmers, and rather wonderful zippered boots with low block heels. It was a brilliant conceit on the layering idea that they’ve owned for seasons now, and which looks set to take a foothold for fall from plenty of others. But even more brilliant: Pulled apart, each and every one of these pieces stands on its own.